16 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



better than other kelts, the fact that a kelt sold for 

 only 4d. or 6d. per pound, at the time that clean 

 salmon were selling for 2s. 6d. or 3s., sufficiently dis- 

 posed of that, and showed the monstrous waste caused 

 by the killing of these animals. A few years ago, 

 every spring, some disgraceful butchery was com- 

 mitted on the Tweed and the Teviot amongst the 

 kelts with the leister, by noblemen and others high in 

 the sporting world ; but a little salutary exposure in 

 the sporting papers put a stop to it, and for several 

 years it has not been renewed. Two of the foremost 

 of these slew no fewer than 300 fish in one night 

 between Melrose and Leader-foot ; and from fifty to 

 eighty kelts a-night were frequently killed. When 

 we consider that the yearly take of clean salmon in 

 the Tweed by all means is now not more than 8000 

 or 10,000 in 1856 it was only 5000 it is not too 

 much to assume that in this ruthless kelt-killing we 

 have one of the causes of the constant reduction that 

 has been going on. Angling for kelts was salmon- 

 fishing in its coarsest form ; and, although far inferior 

 to the true sport, when clean salmon or grilse are the 

 objects of capture, it was yet sufficiently enticing from 

 the numbers and readiness of the fish in taking, and 

 exciting from the strength which they sometimes dis- 

 played. 



The Tweed cannot be fished for salmon satisfactorily 

 without a stiffish rod of from 17 to 19 feet in length, 

 the reel containing from 80 to 100 yards of line. 

 The salmon-angler's tackle varies with the season 

 of the year and the state of the water. We do not 

 know of any principle which should guide him in his 



